Melissa Crawley has a PhD in media studies from Macquarie University in Sydney, Australia. Her book: Mr. Sorkin Goes to Washington: Shaping the President on Television's \x34The West Wing\x34 was published in 2006. She has also published work online
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Melissa Crawley has a PhD in media studies from Macquarie University in Sydney, Australia. Her book: Mr. Sorkin Goes to Washington: Shaping the President on Television's \x34The West Wing\x34 was published in 2006. She has also published work online at PopMatters and Flow as well as chapters in the edited collections: The American President in Popular Culture and The Great American Makeover. Her weekly syndicated television column, Stay Tuned, is part of GateHouse News Service. Follow her on Twitter @melissacrawley

There have recently been some concerns about whether or not educational television is really good for children. Some lawsuits have ended in deciding that no matter what kind of television it is, it’s still not that mentally engaging to children. There is a fair amount of evidence that cartoons are not really educational for children. However, there are some great things that can be learned from educational television. The lawsuits concerned cartoons for toddlers, not documentaries for adults. Those who have been watching real educational television can pick up a lot of information that would take a long time to get in books.

There are some great historical documentaries in which the funding for educational shows lets people see the historical places that they would never see otherwise. Books can’t offer things like visuals and interviews with famous people. While educational cartoons may not be of much educational help to children, but for adults these documentary shows can offer a lot of interesting information that may even be hard to find in books. People can see places that they will never see in real life, and that is something that not even books can offer. This means that in many cases, educational television truly is educational.